Five maybe not-so-Fast Findings

1. I've decided to take both piano and voice lessons. I've been playing since I was 8 and singing since I can remember, but it's been many years since I took lessons, and I need to regain my confidence again.

2. My body has decided to catch someone's sore throat, and my nose is expelling GREEN phlegm. That's a new one for me.

3. I dreamt last night of a little boy, wearing a green T-shirt and blue cargo shorts with cute little brown shoes. He was maybe able 4 or 5 years old, darker complexion, fine brown hair in a bit of a bowl cut, long eyelashes and a smile that could knock me over. I wonder why my mind chose to create him.

4. I've been watching House seasons 5 and 6 over the last week or so, and perhaps I'm watching it too much because when I went to the post office yesterday, I kept waiting for someone to keel over of some heretofore undetectable disease. And old man stumbled and I immediately waited for the ambulance sirens. Of course, it didn't occur to me to find my phone to call 911. Hmm.

5. The package I sent Priority Mail yesterday at about 5pm to Seattle arrived TODAY before noon. Wow. Perhaps the United States Postal Service has a chance to redeem themselves here. I've lost soo many things in the mail in this past year, including checks, important insurance signature papers, cards, etc. Perhaps their motto could be "If we don't get it there fast, we won't deliver it at all."

if I'm working the graveyard shift, can I be called the groundskeeper?

I find it ironic that they call this shift I'm working the "graveyard" shift. Like it's okay to be dead, when in fact, the better part of the shift is spent rubbing my eyes and trying to stay awake.

I'm working as a reservations agent at Northern Quest Resort and Casino. Working here is wonderful. The people I work with are the cream of the crop, so to speak, of the customer service-oriented industry, because that is what makes or breaks this hotel and casino. We are chosen specifically for our customer service backgrounds and personable attitudes. So imagine a whole bunch of people who automatically smile when they pass by you, have proper manners, enjoy talking with people, and go out of their way to be a nice person, and that's what the atmosphere is like here. It's pretty interesting. Plus, in the reservations department, we each have our own desk and somehow, most of us chosen in this department are mildly OCD and like order. We all have our cubicles covered in information sheets and never leave our desk messy at the end of the day. It's fun not being the only crazy person in the office!

We also all read books in between calls (well, most of us) so it's nice being around people who get as absorbed in a book as I do! And the best part about the job? The Employee Dining Room. Yes. Northern Quest provides us with free food 24 hours a day. I don't have to cook, I don't have to pay for food, and what's at the EDR is nearly always healthier than going through the McDonald's drive-thru. Definitely my favorite perk of the job.

Anyway, I'm glad I enjoy this job, it helps make my life more enjoyable. I've been doing well since The Breakup. The first few weeks were miserable and I just wanted the pain to be over, but without pain, I realized I couldn't have learned how to recover from it and heal and become stronger than I was before. And everyday difficulties pale in comparison. While it would have been nice to not deal with such intense misery, I understand now that it helped me grow.

it's just an adult's way of legitimizing texting

So I was out with my dad tonight and he has a Blackberry. He got more texts than I did! I used to think people were pretty high-powered if they had a Blackberry because it's always been aimed at business people, but come on, at the end of the day, you're still texting people just like your 19-year-old son does 600 times a day. It was pretty surreal sitting there eating dinner with my dad merrily tapping away like a teenager.

I'll admit though, he WAS texting his boss back and forth, but MAN, times have changed. Remember when you called someone or had your secretary do it during business hours? Those time-wasters are long gone, now that texting is here to save the day! Sure, it may have taken longer to text back and forth than just pick up the phone, but in between texts, my dad and I had a conversation, whereas in the old days, he would have had to excuse himself to take the call.

I guess this again brings up the broader point of whether being more "connected" actually disconnects you from the people you're with. While my dad didn't have to leave the room to communicate with his boss, he WAS unavailable for about 30 seconds every 5 minutes to reply, even though he was sitting across from me. I guess it just depends on what the texts are. My dad's were with his boss, so maybe that makes it better? Do you think he should have excused himself, even though he was just texting? I think this will bear further scrutiny when today's teenagers enter the workforce.

Yes because Spokane and Mexico are right next to each other

I just got a "new match" from LDSMingle.com. The guy lives in Mexico and his entire profile was in Spanish. I'm serious.

Five MORE Fast Findings

Had more to say after I made my last post.

1. I just got an email from matchmaker.com with the subject reading: Don't let your soulmate meet somebody else. hmm...you'd think if he was my soul mate it would all work out...it's like a tarot card reader, don't leave without paying me $60!

2. It is so nice not being criticized for liking Adam Lambert or Lady Gaga or any of the millions of people that ex-fiance was personally offended by. I can watch Gilmore Girls without listening to snide remarks, I can watch Rent without constant ridicule, and I can sing loudly in the car again!

3. iTunes increased the price of most of their singles to $1.29. Sheesh. Stupid inflation. Or greediness.

4. So apparently Darius Rucker is Hootie from Hootie and the Blowfish? Hey at least I joined the party right? And I guess he's a country singer now. Who woulda thought, a black guy doing country. He has a good voice for it though.

5. Why is John Mayer still famous? His voice never ever changes, why can't he get a throat drop or something? Perhaps he's too busy bragging about all those girls.

6. I couldn't wrap this up without ending on a positive note: I now have re-entered the world of popular music!! I actually have some songs in my iTunes that are less than a year old! woohoo!!

Five Fast Findings

1. My professional opinion is that, if you are a boy and your voice hasn't changed, you have no business singing for millions of people (ahem, Justin Beiber). It's just creepy.

2. My dog now runs to the door when my parents arrive home, even though I, his owner who feeds him and loves him, am sitting right there on the couch. Traitor.

3. I love Wii Boxing. I'm still sore from the other day but my back is going to be sooo toned in a few months.

4. Secretariat was an awesome movie. My mom scored some tickets to a sneak preview of it last night, and it was totally worth the $8 overpriced, burnt and salty popcorn. I recommend Secretariat, it's a good, clean family film, which have been lacking in the past few years.

5. I'm picking up some worms tomorrow for my compost bin. Red wigglers, which are top notch for compost worms.

Musically robbed or robin hood?

I've been driving my dad's car for the past two days while he takes my car to get some small repairs. Naturally, each day I've forgotten to grab my CDs and am stuck listening to the radio for my half-hour drive to work.

I've actually been listening to country. Every 5-6 years or so I'll go through a country phase for a few months, then it ends and I don't listen to it for the next 5-6 years. But for the past few days, country has been nice for me to listen to, mainly because it's basically positive music. No loud, clashing drums, or screaming, just a guy and his guitar, boiled down to the basics. And the majority of the songs are about "wanting a good woman" or something to that effect describing the perfect woman, which is really just about someone he can spoil while she who loves and supports him, in nice terms that don't involve swearing, innuendo or other crass terms. Try singing about that, Kanye West. It's nice to hear a guy, for once, who's not too proud to admit he needs a woman, and not just the first girl on the street who will go home with him, but the right woman. So that's kind of why I've been listening to country. That, and since me and my ex-fiance never listened to country, it's a bit of a fresh start for me. One day at a time, you know.